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Monday, February 21, 2011

This is one of my favorite bread machine breads, perfect for a cold February day!

(This favorite bread machine recipe was revisited and added to Recipe Favorites February 2011.) I spent weeks on a quest to create South Beach Diet friendly bread using my Oster Bread Machine, and this is the recipe I came up with! Previously I'd made South Beach friendly bread in the bread machine using a mix, but this time I wanted to make bread from scratch using all whole wheat flour, very minimal sugar, and a fair amount of fiber. The bread you see above is the winning recipe, after seven earlier versions and a lot of helpful suggestions from bloggers, relatives, and a parent from school!

You can use whole oatmeal, but I like the flavor of oats but not the look of oatmeal flakes in the bread, so I grind oatmeal in the food processor. (I keep this in the freezer and often use it in recipes instead of bread crumbs.)

Follow directions for your bread machine, but in my machine you add the liquid ingredients first. I combined the lukewarm water, agave nectar, olive oil, and a tiny bit of brown sugar before I put it in the machine. (I use the measuring spoon to stir, eliminating the need to dirty another spoon.)

I mixed white whole wheat flour, ground oatmeal, wheat bran, flaxseed meal, vital wheat gluten, dough enhancer, and salt in advance, so it was ready to pour in as soon as I added the liquid.

When you make bread in a machine, you need to watch during the first mixing and make sure the bread forms a ball like this. Depending on the humidity where you live, you may need to add more water or flour (one tablespoon at a time) during this initial mixing.

Follow directions for your bread machine. In my Oster Bread Machine I put the liquid in first, followed by the dry ingredients I mixed in the bowl. Then I make a small well in the flour and put the yeast in that. I used the whole wheat setting on the machine.

Watch bread while it goes through the first mixing cycle, and if it doesn't form a ball you may need to add either more flour or water, 1 tablespoon at a time. The dough should make a firm ball and be only slightly sticky.

If you're going to be taking photos of the bread for your food blog, you may want to take the dough out of the machine right before the final rise and gently fold sides under to make a loaf with a smooth top. When I didn't do that, I still had a tasty bread but the top wasn't as well-shaped.

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Congratulations on succeeding at this bread - I will have to try it out! It looks gorgeous and probably tastes even better.

My best bread-making tip is to use SAF yeast. It rises well, stores forever, & doesn't give the fermented taste the next day. When I am visiting Utah, I buy it at the natural food store on 5th west in Bountiful.

That sounds great! I'll definitely have to give this a try. I usually use the King Arthur recipe for 100% whole wheat bread (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/RecipeDisplay?RID=R548), but use 2 tablespoons of agave instead of the honey. I like the addition of oats in your recipe, though.

Katie, I haven't tried the white whole wheat flour without using dough enhancer, so I'm not entirely sure what it does. I used it on the recommendation of my sister Sandee who says it helps whole wheat flour to rise. You can click the link and see what the ingredients are in the dough enhancer if you want to know.

I, more literally, made 100% wholewheat bread yesterday. I ground my own wheat flour and added just water yeast and salt. Nothing else. And I kneaded it by hand. However, my recipe probably isn't worth sharing ;)

Yum - looks wonderful! I find straight whole wheat can upset my stomach, but with oats and bran, I don't think it would be a problem. I also don't have a bread machine, but I think it would be doable without one. Thanks so much!

The bread looks fantastic and makes me almost jealous! I bake my own bread since quite some time and follow the recipe in the booklet I got ... the only problem is that the breat, yummy as it is, usually looks on the top like the crater of a dead vulcano - sunken in! I am not quite sure what the reason is as I don't open the machine during the process.

I will definitely try YOUR recipe ... I always LOVE to try out something new!

I'm certainly not well-educated enough about making bread to answer questions, but to a couple of commenters who have mentioned the vital wheat gluten, I was told that adding more gluten is pretty important when using all whole wheat flour. If anyone tries the recipe without it, please chime in and tell us how it works.

Love that I might be inspiring some people to make bread. (Tanna, pretty funny huh?) Brooke is my neighbor who tried out some of the "reject" batches of bread! TW and Christine, I did love the bread, and considering I am so NOT a baker, I was proud that I persevered and got a good recipe.

Hi Kalyn - Thanks so much! I have been having whole grain breads for quite sometime now - buy it from the local bakery. But really really have been wanting to make my own whole grain bread - thanks for the wonderful inspiration...

I bet it would be wonderful toasted and spread with goat's cheese and a maybe bit of basil.

-Elizabeth

P.S. I had to google "dough enhancer" to find out what it is and what it's for. While I was looking, I found recipes for it at recipezaar.com and ellenskitchen.com. The article dough enhancers and how to use them at breadmachinedigest.com is also really informative.

Victoria, great to hear that it worked without the dough enhancer because I bet you're not the only one who can't find it. I'm going to order some online, because I'm almost out myself. Over the weekend I worked on a variation of the recipe with cracked wheat, will post that soon. Good luck on the diet. It really does work if you stick with it!

Victoria, great to hear that it worked without the dough enhancer because I bet you're not the only one who can't find it. I'm going to order some online, because I'm almost out myself. Over the weekend I worked on a variation of the recipe with cracked wheat, will post that soon. Good luck on the diet. It really does work if you stick with it!

Victoria, great to hear that it worked without the dough enhancer because I bet you're not the only one who can't find it. I'm going to order some online, because I'm almost out myself. Over the weekend I worked on a variation of the recipe with cracked wheat, will post that soon. Good luck on the diet. It really does work if you stick with it!

Hi Kalyn! I've recently started reading your blog and am loving it, thank you for all the inspiration. I also recently started the SB diet, I'm about to finish Phase 1. I'm wondeirng if the 100% whole wheat flour would be ok to use in place of the white wheat flour? or does it make the bread too dense? looking forward to trying it! Thank you! -Amanda

I don't calculate nutritional information. One reason I chose South Beach was because you didn't have to keep track of that kind of thing, so if you want that information you will have to calculate it yourself.

Hi Kalyn, Thanks to your wonderful recipes my husband and I have lost 15 pounds each since January 3rd, 2009. I search your blog daily for recipes to use and make sure I have the ingredients on hand. I like the Irish Soda Bread with Agave Nectar much better than the first recipe without it. I enjoy every meal and really appreciate the ease of South Beach using your recipes has helped our success. Thank you.

Anonymous, the link in this post goes to the store in Utah where I buy it; you can order it online from them. I think there are also a lot of recipes for it online if you want to try googling it. I know most of the ingredients are things you can buy separately. The one from Kitchen Kneads has whew, soy milk, soy lechithin, modified corn starch, vitamin C powder, and citric acid. It helps the whole wheat to rise and keeps the bread softer, but I'm guessing the recipe will still work without it. (If anyone tries that, let us know.)

Anonymous, thanks so much for the nice thoughts. I liked the slightly sweet version of Irish soda bread too, but my dad liked the more soda-tasting one a lot last year.

Pat, I'm not sure how you would make it a 2 pound loaf, but I'd assume you can just add 1/3 more of each ingredient and it would make a slightly bigger loaf. You'd have to experiment to see how it works. I'm not much of a baker so I can't tell you if you would increase each ingredient equally, but I'd love to hear how it works if you try it!

I just made this bread today and it turned out great. I didn't have any dough enhancer (could not find any locally) but it was still a great bread. Very dense and chewy and flavorful. Will try to find the dough enhancer next time around but definitely will make again.

I just wanted to add another comment about this great recipe. Thank you Kalyn for introducing me to agave nectar. Wow, this stuff is fabulous. I am using it in our sweet tea now with great results. Oddly enough, I am noticing that not a lot of folks are aware of these low-glycemic, low-carb options for food preparation. My endocrinologist definitely is not! She is not even aware of Stevia. Your website is a wonderful resource for those of us doing the South Beach-type eating plan. Keep up the great work!

Wow, thanks for the nice feedback. I do think that the word will continue to grow in favor of low-glycemic eating. My own doctor asks me regularly for business cards and recommends this way of eating to many of his patients.

Thank you for this recipe I am going to make it soon. I had a questions though, if I don't have the dough enhancer can I just leave it out or is there a substitute? After looking on line for what are the ingredients(in the substitute) I would prefer not to add it.

I honestly have no idea if the recipe will work without the dough enhancer. It's something that aids in rising for whole wheat bread flour. The one I have lists whey, soy milk, soy lechithin, modified corn starch, vitamin C powder, and citric acid for ingredients.

I did it without the wheat gluten and dough enhancer as I didn't have either and was tired of running to the store for ingredients I knew I didn't have, then ingredients I thought I had but didn't..... Big ol' Fail. Not a good thing. Oh well, another trip to the store!

The bagels turned out wonderful. I used the directions from http://www.breadmachinedigest.com/recipes/dough-recipes/5050-bagels.php with your recipe. I would send your a picture of them but I am not sure how to do that.

This bread is wonderful! I just wanted let you know that whole wheat bread flour works in place of white whole wheat. I didn't have gluten and dough enhancer, so I added 1 Tbsp dry skim milk powder and 1 Tbsp soy lecithin granules to the bread machine. I was bad and used 1.5Tbsp butter and 3 Tbsp honey in place of olive oil and sweeteners. I will try olive oil and agave next time. Is honey is OK if used sparingly for phase 2? Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!

Michelle good to know that it will work with regular whole wheat flour. Is "whole wheat bread flour" 100% whole wheat (I haven't heard of that before and if it's a blend of white flour and whole wheat flour as many breads use that claim to be whole wheat, that wouldn't be good for South Beach.)

The latest book lists honey under "Phase Two Foods to Avoid or eat Rarely" so I wouldn't use it in the bread if it was me.

I'm in Canada, so I can't get white whole wheat flour. I use Robin Hood's Best for bread whole wheat flour. http://www.robinhood.ca/product.details.asp?pid=197&prodcid=44

I just looked at the ingredients listed and it says whole wheat flour, ascorbic acid, and other names to enhance dough. I am hoping that it is 100% whole wheat. I will contact Robin Hood to ask. I bought it out of curiosity way before SBD. (I love trying different products).

Thanks for the honey update! The book I borrowed from the library was pretty old and I think it mentioned honey sparingly but it doesn't matter, as I only had a sliver of bread while my 3 kids and hubby ate the whole loaf yesterday! Will try make another one today with agave. :)

I contacted Robin Hood regarding their bread flour and it is indeed 100% whole wheat bread flour and not a blend! :) I made another loaf with agave and brown sugar with the additions of dry milk and soy lecithin in place of enhancer and it turned out beautiful! Thanks again for a great recipe.

This is one of the best whole wheat breads that I have made and I've tried tons of them. It has a nice soft texture. I used wheat germ instead of bran and honey instead of agave nectar because that's what I had here.

Kalyn, thanks for the recipe! I know I must have done something wrong because when my machine was at the "rise" stage, the dough was mostly clumped over on one side and seemed too wet. I added some more flour and it turned out all right but I think not as good as it was supposed to. I am using a Zojirushi and I put it on the whole wheat cycle and I did not add dough enhancer.

Should I get some of that? Anything standing out to you as problematic? Thanks again!

My dough is in the bread maker. I discovered that I didn't have any wheat bran, but since I was grinding my own wheat, I am hoping there will be enough bran still in there to make up for it. My family loves our usual wheat bread recipe, but I'm always happy to try out a new one! Thanks.

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